Lincroft-Holmdel Science Fiction Club
Club Notice - 9/10/86 -- Vol. 5, No. 9
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.
LZ meetings are in LZ 3A-206; MT meetings are in MT 4A-235.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
09/17 LZ: The Elric series by Michael Moorcock (Magic as Science)
(THE DREAMING CITY (a.k.a. ELRIC OF MELNIBONE), THE SAILOR
ON THE SEAS OF FATE, THE WEIRD OF THE WHITE WOLF, THE
SLEEPING SORCERESS (a.k.a. THE VANISHING TOWER), THE BANE
OF THE BLACK SWORD, STORMBRINGER, ELRIC AT THE END OF TIME,
THE SINGING CITADEL, and maybe others)
09/24 MT: Book Exchange (Rm 4A-235)
10/08 LZ: BLOOD MUSIC by Greg Bear (Genetics)
10/15 MT: (Re)organizational Meeting for MT discussion (Rm 4A-235)
10/29 LZ: MALLWORLD by Somtow Sucharitkul (Commerce)
11/19 LZ: THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS by Ursula K. LeGuin (Sexual Identity)
12/10 LZ: NEUROMANCER by William Gibson (Consciousness)
HO Chair is John Jetzt, HO 4F-528A (834-1563). LZ Chair is Rob
Mitchell, LZ 1B-306 (576-6106). MT Chair is Mark Leeper,
MT 3E-433 (957-5619). HO Librarian is Tim Schroeder, HO 2G-427A
(949-5866). LZ Librarian is Lance Larsen, LZ 3C-219 (576-2668).
MT Librarian is Bruce Szablak, MT 4C-418 (957-5868).
Jill-of-all-trades is Evelyn Leeper, MT 1F-329 (957-2070).
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. On Wednesday, September 17, Lincroft is going to be discussing
"Magic as Science" and Michael Moorcock's "Elric" series. Since I
couldn't manage to contact the person who suggested them to write
the blurb, you will have to settle for excerpts from Mark Leeper's
review of THE DREAMING CITY and the "Elric" comic books:
..._T_h_e _D_r_e_a_m_i_n_g _C_i_t_y tells one story, I suppose, but even
more so it is a string of short stories, not unlike _T_h_e
_O_d_y_s_s_e_y. None of the stories is particularly good by itself
though. The whole of the book is much greater than the sum of
its parts in that it makes a reasonably good story taken as
one long adventure with a number of interesting ideas and
sequences.
Moorcock has a really good imagination when it comes to visual
images, but I doubt that they would have come across as well
without some of the stylized artwork of the comic book. ...
- 2 -
_T_h_e _D_r_e_a_m_i_n_g _C_i_t_y is not a very complex book. Yes, it is a
little more complex than a Conan story. Elric does go on a
search to find his own identity; I doubt Conan ever would.
But just in case you missed that aspect of the character,
Moorcock has Elric say things like, "I feel that [this]
happiness cannot last unless we know what we are." The book
has some subtlety, but little profundity. ...
[entered by -ecl]
2. George MacLachlan sends me the following:
I heard an interesting piece of SF trivia on the radio this
morning. Apparently Ray Bradbury is staging his story
"Farenheit 451" as a musical somewhere in Connecticut (I
wasn't paying close attention so I missed the name of the
town). Having both read the book and seen the movie I am
unable to visualize this as a musical in any context, although
it might make for an interesting way to pass an hour or so.
I understand the script is done entirely in pictures. I suppose
the play could use some of Wagner's Fire Music. Or perhaps have a
local kindergarden class play dancing flames. They can have the
chorus sing "Don't know much about history, don't know much
biology. Don't much about science books..." Gee, maybe they will
pack all the book people in cardboard book costumes. That would be
very nice. The possibilities are endless.
3. Mark and I went to the Renaissance Faire in Tuxedo, New York,
this past weekend and saw AS YOU LIKE IT (by William Shakespeare,
in case you didn't know). It was a good production, with excellent
actors. The staging was not unlike what would have been used in
Shakespeare's time, with the exception of the actresses playing the
female roles, and the weather was perfect (it's an outdoor
production). Many of the actors have New York or other major
experience.
The rest of the Faire was interesting, though I had seen a lot of
the same sort of thing before in California. If you haven't been
to one before, get there early to see the rest before the play.
The show at the Mudd Pit was pretty gross. The joust was okay,
though obviously choreographed (much as professional wrestling is,
but considerably more refined).
The play starts at 2:30 PM and runs about 2 hours, with one
intermission. The benches are hard--bring a cushion if you need
one. The admission to the Faire, including the play, is $9.50 per
person on Saturdays and $10 on Sundays. I'm not sure if they do
the same play every day or not, but I'm pretty sure that they do
only comedies in any case.
- 3 -
Summary: highly recommended. [-ecl]
4. I understand that for the remake as well as for the original,
Fox has been surprised by the popularity of THE FLY. They have the
two biggest science-fiction/fantasy hits of the summer with that
and ALIENS. ALIENS has sold more tickets, but THE FLY has grossed
more, if you know what I mean. Timed to correspond with the
release of the film, no less an author than John Fowles has a
prequel out called "A Maggot". Soon bookstores will be selling
blueprints (like they do for STAR TREK) for the matter transmitter
under the name "The Fly Specs."
Mark Leeper
MT 3E-433 957-5619
...mtgzz!leeper
MONA LISA
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Comedy, drama, anger, crime, social
comment, and love story. It is hard to imagine that this
film really does as much as it does as well as it does.
A very fine script makes this one of the highest quality
and most entertaining films of the year. Struggle a
little with the Cockney accents; the film is worth it.
It has been observed that there are many foreign language films
that could do much better at the boxoffice if they were done in English.
I think a prime example must be _M_o_n_a _L_i_s_a. The film _M_o_n_a _L_i_s_a is done
in British Cockney without benefit of dubbing or subtitles. Now I don't
speak any Cockney but many words are cognates and I can understand
enough that I can usually pick up the gist of what is being said. With
this linguistic skill, I found _M_o_n_a _L_i_s_a to be one of the best films of
the summer (second only to _A _G_r_e_a_t _W_a_l_l).
To start with, I am a Bob Hoskins fan from _T_h_e _L_o_n_g _G_o_o_d _F_r_i_d_a_y and
PBS's showing of the British _F_l_i_c_k_e_r_s series, and to a lesser extent
from _T_h_e _C_o_t_t_o_n _C_l_u_b. _M_o_n_a _L_i_s_a has the feisty Cockney actor at his
best as a small-time hood, recently released from prison, who gets a
part-time job chauffeuring a prostitute, Simone. She enlists his help
to find another prostitute who is missing. the hood, who thought of
himself as a bad man before, gets a quick education in the world of
prostitution and for once finds himself morally outraged. The plot that
ensues is worthy of a Dashiell Hammett novel. People play dirty and
rough. And the background has an air of authenticity that Hammett often
lacked.
Neil Jordan, who co-wrote the script as well as directed the film,
has a good feel for the characters he has created. Hoskins's character
is very real, yet funny enough in ways the character intends and does
not intend, that he is a real joy to watch. Cathy Tyson, as Simone,
really has the mystery that the title implies. This a _A _G_r_e_a_t _W_a_l_l are
the must-see films of the summer. Give it a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
And if you need an interpreter for the Cockney, maybe I'm available. I
wouldn't mind seeing the film again.
STARQUAKE by Robert Forward
Del Rey, 1986, $3.50.
A book review by Mark R. Leeper
Robert Forward's first hard-science science fiction novel, _D_r_a_g_o_n'_s
_E_g_g, was published in 1980. It was a remarkably enjoyable story of the
visit of a neutron star to our solar system, and of the inhabitants, the
cheela, whose time sense is roughly a million times as fast as ours. At
that time it appeared that Forward could go one of two ways. he could
either be a new James Hogan, with adventures built around engaging
scientific concepts, or he could become the new Hal Clement, with more
cute, likeable aliens. After his third novel, it is clear that he is
closer to Clement or even Alan Dean Foster than he is to Hogan. In
fact, his plotting my be the weakest of any of them.
Forward's first two novels dealt with space expeditions and first
contacts. His third novel is really a direct continuation of his first
two, telling of the exciting adventures that happened on the one day
following (the next 100 cheela generations). As with the previous
novels, the characters are rudimentary and the science-as-background is
the real star. Forward says in the 21-page appendix that "one can
hardly imagine a more alien life form than the cheela." That may be
true if the "one" is Forward, but in fact the cheela are too much just
oddly shaped humans. Forward has touches like having the cheela wink at
each other to flirt. Their shape is odd, but their behavior is very
human.
_S_t_a_r_q_u_a_k_e might have been called _D_r_a_g_o_n'_s _E_g_g: _T_h_e _N_e_x_t _D_a_y. The
novel takes place over 24 hours. That is about a hundred generations of
cheela time, though clearly some cheela seemed to live a lot longer than
Forward's appendix suggests they do. What is more, Forward has some fun
with cheela names and the more he has, the less I had. cheela now have
names like Otis-elevator, Newton-Einstein, and, in what I assume was an
inside joke for SF fans, Fuzzy-Pink.
_S_t_a_r_q_u_a_k_e does cover a considerable piece of cheela history and if
you try you can get some feel for the sweep of history, but overall,
this novel of life on a neutron star is a bit light-weight. Forward may
continue to write science fiction, but I suspect he will remain a one-
book author. The best thing about _S_t_a_r_q_u_a_k_e is that is caused a re-
issue of _D_r_a_g_o_n'_s _E_g_g.
SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: All-black comedy by an apparently
very young director, scriptwriter, and actor is a very
impressive first film which compares favorably with Woody
Allen's better social comedies. There are rough edges,
including a pointless dance sequence, but there is much
of value and a lot that is genuinely funny.
There seems to be a conspiracy these days. Most of the "art
theater" films seem to have something in common. Most of the good
films--the ones I have to go into New York to see--seem to start the
same way. They all say "Island Films." I first noticed this logo on
the film _K_i_s_s _o_f _t_h_e _S_p_i_d_e_r _W_o_m_a_n. It popped up again on _A _T_r_i_p _t_o
_B_o_u_n_t_i_f_u_l. I could be wrong, but I think _A _G_r_e_a_t _W_a_l_l had the logo. I
know _M_o_n_a _L_i_s_a was an Island Picture, and now these people have released
_S_h_e'_s _G_o_t_t_a _H_a_v_e _I_t.
Nola Darling (no apparent relation to Wendy) doesn't want to grow
up and settle down. She enjoys too much her freedom and her friends,
who include three male lovers and one hopeful lesbian. The film is
handled as sort of a case history by all of the important characters in
the plot. Nola tries to balance the lovers off against each other,
keeping each happy, but soon her success starts to wear thin. The final
straw is a Thanksgiving dinner to which she invites all three lovers,
hoping they will all get along famously. "Notoriously" might be a
better description. Each lover wants to be an exclusive lover and Wendy
lets things get worse and worse trying to postpone her final decision.
Spike Lee's film--he directed, wrote, and plays a major role in
it--is as light a film as has ever come out under the Island Films
banner. It is a funny film that conceals some serious overtones. Like
_M_o_n_a _L_i_s_a it looks back longingly at the old-fashioned life-styles of
stable, monogamous marriages. Lee's style of introspective social (sex)
comedies has been compared to that of Woody Allen and had the cast not
been black, this could well have been a Woody Allen comedy. _S_h_e'_s _G_o_t_t_a
_H_a_v_e _I_t is a light piece of fluff but if Lee is as young as he appears
in the film, he probably has an impressive career ahead of him. Rate it
+1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Confederation: 44th World Science Fiction Convention
by Evelyn C. Leeper
1. TTTThhhhuuuurrrrssssddddaaaayyyy
1.1 FFFFllllyyyyiiiinnnngggg DDDDoooowwwwnnnn ttttoooo RRRRiiiioooo............IIII MMMMeeeeaaaannnn,,,, AAAAttttllllaaaannnnttttaaaa
We left home at 6:30 AM for our 8:45 flight, only to find it delayed for
one reason and another until 11:00 AM (after our scheduled arrival
time!). Breakfast (served about noon on the plane) was eggs and
sausage.
1.2 RRRReeeeggggiiiissssttttrrrraaaattttiiiioooonnnn
Con registration was in the Marriott. We got over there and registered
(no lines). We signed in at the message board and discovered we already
had a message from another Usenetter who wanted to meet us. We also
discovered we had missed an alternate histories panel. Oh, well. The
Pocket Program was 21" by 30" and printed in small print on both sides.
It also costs a dollar to get replaced if you lose it. And as usual,
the film/video program is _n_o_t listed on the Pocket Program, so you _s_t_i_l_l
need to cart another piece of paper around. However, since the film
program duplicates our own library to a great extent I suspect we won't
be seeing too much of it.
We spent most of the rest of the day checking out the Hucksters' Room,
meeting friends, etc. We had dinner at Pittypat's Porch, known for
Southern cooking. I had the blackened grouper, Mark had the barbeque
assortment, Dave had the wild game platter (boar, venison, and buffalo),
and Kate had the jambalaya. All very good and the salad bar was also
amazing.
1.3 MMMMeeeeeeeettttiiiinnnngggg aaaa UUUUsssseeeennnneeeetttttttteeeerrrr
After dinner we went to the Meet-the-Particpants Party in the Con Suite.
Actually, the Con Suite was the entire 10th floor of the Marriott, which
formed a very wide balcony around the atrium. We finally found Kimi
(the Usenetter we were looking for) based on our exchanging descriptions
of what we would be wearing and what we looked like. ("I look like a
combination of Oriental and American Indian.") We talked for a while
about Usenet and AT&T, since she also works for them (us?). We also met
some other friends and sat around eating and drinking for about an hour
before deciding we were tired and going to bed.
- 2 -
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2.1 BBBBrrrreeeeaaaakkkkffffaaaasssstttt
A bunch of us had breakfast at the Dunk 'n Dine next door to the
Hilton--fast and cheap. After breakfast I went over to the Art Show (in
the Marriott) and took a quick whiz-through. Art Shows are getting more
and more spotty and this was no exception. Except for the works by
professional artists which were either not for sale or way out of my
price range, the material was pretty dismal.
2.2 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: AAAA TTTThhhhiiiinnnngggg CCCCaaaalllllllleeeedddd NNNNaaaattttiiiioooonnnnaaaallll SSSScccciiiieeeennnncccceeee PPPPoooolllliiiiccccyyyy
(Members: James Funaro, Geoffrey Landis, Donald F. Robertson; Noon) I
didn't stay very long--the panel members were not very interesting and
the bottom line seemed to be "No bucks, no Buck Rogers." Instead I
wandered down to the Hucksters' Room to get George Alec Effinger's
autograph in _C_o_o_k_i_n_g _O_u_t _o_f _T_h_i_s _W_o_r_l_d, a collection of recipes from SF
authors. Someone mentioned they had seen a copy for sale there and
Effinger said he would be interested, so I tracked it down. When I went
back and told him it was $75 he said at that price he wouldn't buy it
but he might go visit it.
2.3 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: TTTThhhheeee CCCCaaaarrrreeee aaaannnndddd FFFFeeeeeeeeddddiiiinnnngggg ooooffff tttthhhheeee FFFFaaaannnn HHHHuuuuggggoooo
(Members: Mike Glyer, George Laskowski, Patrick Nielsen-Hayden,
Charlotte Proctor, Marty Cantor; 1PM) This panel was considerably more
lively than the last. Mike Glicksohn was in the audience and there was
a heated discussion of the ad he and others placed in _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n
_C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e asking people to vote "No Award" for Best Fanzine. The
problems seem to be that fans who are knowledgeable about fanzines are
often too poor to join the Worldcon to vote on it, that fanzines by
their very nature have such a limited circulation that most fans don't
see more than one or two of the nominees, and that it takes a relatively
small number of organized fans to get a specialty-zine (such as
_U_n_i_v_e_r_s_a_l _T_r_a_n_s_l_a_t_o_r or the "Costumers' Guild Newsletter"--I forget the
exact name) on the ballot. Although the split-off of the Semi-Prozine
is seen as a good thing, whether or not there is enough knowledge for
the remaining category to be meaningful remains to be seen.
2.4 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: HHHHeeee CCCCaaaammmmeeee ffffrrrroooommmm OOOOuuuutttteeeerrrr SSSSppppaaaacccceeee:::: BBBBrrrraaaaddddbbbbuuuurrrryyyy oooonnnn FFFFiiiillllmmmm
(Members: Bill Warren, Ray Bradbury, Michael Cassutt; 3PM) This was
mostly reminiscences by Bradbury about his experiences with _S_o_m_e_t_h_i_n_g
_W_i_c_k_e_d _T_h_i_s _W_a_y _C_o_m_e_s, _T_h_e _M_a_r_t_i_a_n _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_s, _T_h_e _I_l_l_u_s_t_r_a_t_e_d _M_a_n, and
_P_i_c_a_s_s_o _S_u_m_m_e_r. He liked the results of the first and disliked--to
varying degrees--the last three. He also talked about his non-SF work.
Apparently when Huston asked him to do the script for _M_o_b_y _D_i_c_k, he had
to admit that he hadn't even read the book, at which point Huston told
him to go home and give it a try. When he got home he told his wife
that he had to read _M_o_b_y _D_i_c_k and do a book report the next day.
- 3 -
Although I'm not a big Bradbury fan he was an interesting speaker and
entertained us all quite a bit.
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(Members: Victor Milan, David Brin, Robert Fenelon, John Maddox Roberts,
Mark Stephens; 4PM) This was one of the more interesting panels. David
Brin talked about his "dogma of otherness" theory (about which he
recently did a column in _A_n_a_l_o_g). His perception of the world is that
there are four major "dogmas" underlying society and different countries
emphasize different ones. Most of Latin America and the Middle East,
for example, follow the "dogma of macho" (all this is according to Brin,
of course). Africa follows the "dogma of revenge"; we follow the "dogma
of otherness" (if aliens were to land tomorrow, Brin claims our first
question would be "do you have a cuisine?"). The Japanese and other Far
Eastern cultures follow the "dogma of homogeneity." Therefore, while we
value the diversity of cultures (eating various cuisines et al), any
change the Japanese make towards another culture is orchestrated so that
everyone changes together He claims in Japan even gang fights are
planned--even down to the victor--and cleared with the police ahead of
time. There was much discussion of Japanese culture and little of SF,
no matter how hard everyone tried to drag SF back in.
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(Members: Jane Yolen, Asa Drake, Beth Fleischer, J. Neil Schulman; 5PM)
A truly silly panel. No one was really sure what they were supposed to
be discussing, so it was more a discussion of sex in general in science
fiction than S&M per se. My "Sticks and stones may break my bones but
whips and chains excite me" T-shirt was a definite hit though! Jane
Yolen had been pressed into service as moderator, which was unfortunate
because she was very negative on the subject of explicit sex in science
fiction. J. Neil Schulman has a book coming out soon called _T_h_e _R_a_i_n_b_o_w
_C_a_d_e_n_z_a which postulates that the ability of parents to choose their
offspring's sex results in a 7-1 male/female ratio, which results in a
draft of women to serve in government brothels for three years. At the
end of that time they are mustered out and for some reason not entirely
clear, become the power elite of the society. It sounds like there are
some logic flaws there, but I suspect the book will sell well anyway.
This is as good a place as any to mention the "protests" against the
recent Supreme Court decision on the Georgia sodomy law. I saw one
button which said "Atlanta '86: Confederation World Sodomy Tour" and
another which said "I violated a Supreme Court decision at
Confederation." The attempt at planning a co-ordinated protest--setting
a time for everyone to engage in ... civil disobedience (in the privacy
of their hotel rooms, of course) and letting the police force know that
at such-and-such a time, the following list of people would be violating
the law in the Atlanta Hilton and Marriott--fell flat however. I guess
you just can't organize some things.
- 4 -
2.7 DDDDiiiinnnnnnnneeeerrrr aaaatttt FFFFiiiisssshhhheeeerrrrmmmmaaaannnn''''ssss CCCCoooovvvveeee
We went to Fisherman's Cove for dinner and had some very good seafood
and a terrific dessert bar. Because they were nothing special to rush
back for we had time to eat and talk in leisure. Also, we managed to
get a table for 8 so that Dave, Kate, the Cohens, Mark, and I could all
sit together.
2.8 PPPPaaaarrrrttttiiiieeeessss
After dinner was party time! We started with Lan's party, a closed
party for contributors to _L_a_n'_s _L_a_n_t_e_r_n and various APAs that Lan is in.
It was good to see him after all these years (I think the last time was
Noreascon 2!) and of course we all wished him success in the Hugo
voting. We also met Maia (actually we had met her outside the hotel
earlier). And like everyone else, we told her, "Gee, did you know
there's a book named after you?" :-) (_M_a_i_a by Richard Adams for those
who didn't know). Lan had even managed to get his coonskin cap
repaired--the tail had fallen off several years ago and he had finally
gotten it replaced. This party also gave Lan a chance to meet Dale
Skran, someone whose writing he had discovered through the _L_i_n_c_r_o_f_t-
_H_o_l_m_d_e_l _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n _N_e_w_s_l_e_t_t_e_r, and who has subsequently been
published in _L_a_n'_s _L_a_n_t_e_r_n.
From there we went to the on-going L5 party where we picked up some
literature for use by the North Jersey chapter. We also talked to a few
people there and in general socialized and discussed space-type stuff.
We then decided to pop into the Boston in '89 party in the hopes of
meeting some Massachusetts fen. Instead we ran into Saul Jaffe (editor
of _S_F-_L_o_v_e_r_s' _D_i_g_e_s_t) and Liz Sommers (another Jersey fan). So we sat
and talked about net.sf-lovers and Usenet in general, using up all the
conversation we should have been saving for the SFL party on Sunday.
Finally Liz left for a cigarette and we left for bed.
3. SSSSaaaattttuuuurrrrddddaaaayyyy
3.1 BBBBrrrreeeeaaaakkkkffffaaaasssstttt
Another quickie at the Dunk 'n Dine. No one is real thrilled with
grits, but when Kate ordered the hash browns she concluded that they
were formed by pressing grits together.
3.2 GGGGeeeettttttttiiiinnnngggg BBBBrrrraaaaddddbbbbuuuurrrryyyy''''ssss AAAAuuuuttttooooggggrrrraaaapppphhhh
I got in line at 9:45 AM for the 10:00 session. The line seemed to be
moving along nicely, since each person was limited to one book, but at
10:45 they cut it off six people in front of me because Bradbury had to
be on an 11:00 panel. Argghh!! But a moment's thought made me realize
that 1) we were on the tenth floor of the Marriott, 2) the panel was in
- 5 -
the Hilton, and 3) Bradbury couldn't fly. So I hung around the
elevators until he came along, got in the elevator with him, and got my
book signed on the way down (so did several other people).
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(Members: Ellen Datlow, Beth Meacham, Edward Bryant, William Gibson,
Lewis Shiner, Michael Swanwick; 1PM) Based on what I had heard about the
cyberpunk panel at the NASFIC, I went to this expecting a lively panel.
Too bad--it was pretty ho-hum. People seemed to take exception to the
term cyberpunk, referring to it as the "c-word." Even Datlow seemed
negative on the word, which is odd because she used to bill herself as
the "Queen of Punk SF." Ah, well, some people just bend with the
breeze, I suppose.
This panel was notable for the coining of the term "nogs"--"novels of
Gibsonian sensibilities." As Dale said, how can the man endure such
adulation? I refuse to get involved in the definition of cyberpunk.
Heck, we haven't even managed to define science fiction yet!
3.4 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: CCCCaaaannnn TTTThhhheeeerrrreeee BBBBeeee HHHHoooorrrrrrrroooorrrr aaaatttt 2222::::00000000 PPPPMMMM????
(Members: Tappan King, John R. Douglas, Marvin Kaye, Alan Nicholl,
Gregory Nicholl, Douglas Winter; 2PM) Only if being stuck in a crowded
room with a boring panel that I couldn't hear could be termed horror. I
left early.
3.5 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: WWWWeeee CCCCoooonnnnttttrrrroooollll tttthhhheeee VVVVeeeerrrrttttiiiiccccaaaallll:::: SSSSFFFF oooonnnn TTTTVVVV
(Members: Edward Bryant, Michael Cassutt, Harlan Ellison, Dennis
Etchison, Michael Kube-McDowell, George R. R. Martin; 3PM) Michael
Cassutt works on HBO's _T_h_e _H_i_t_c_h_h_i_k_e_r, Harlan Ellison used to work on
_T_w_i_l_i_g_h_t _Z_o_n_e and has worked on lots of other TV series, Dennis Etchison
and George R. R. Martin are currently working pn _T_w_i_l_i_g_h_t _Z_o_n_e, and
Michael Kube-McDowell is working on _T_a_l_e_s _f_r_o_m _t_h_e _D_a_r_k_s_i_d_e. So this
panel had a lot of expertise and covered a wide range of SF on TV. For
example, _T_h_e _H_i_t_c_h_h_i_k_e_r, because it is on cable rather than broadcast
television, can be "darker" in tone than _T_w_i_l_i_g_h_t _Z_o_n_e. And _T_a_l_e_s _f_r_o_m
_t_h_e _D_a_r_k_s_i_d_e, because it is done on a shoe-string budget, cannot have
more than four actors per episode and only indoor sets. In fact,
because of how they are distributed, _T_h_e _H_i_t_c_h_h_i_k_e_r and _T_a_l_e_s _f_r_o_m _t_h_e
_D_a_r_k_s_i_d_e both have more freedom than _T_w_i_l_i_g_h_t _Z_o_n_e and hence are often
considerably better. Etchison and Martin, because they were currently
employed by _T_w_i_l_i_g_h_t _Z_o_n_e could not be as harsh as Ellison, who
"translated" what they were saying, to the merriment of all. For
example, "This story is overly complex" would become "This story makes
you think," or "This story doesn't have the 'Twilight Zone' feel" means
"We can't sell it to our sponsors." I could give examples of contrasts
among the shows for pages, but I would instead recommend that you watch
them for yourself.
- 6 -
3.6 AAAAuuuuttttooooggggrrrraaaapppphhhh SSSSeeeessssssssiiiioooonnnn:::: HHHHaaaarrrrllllaaaannnn EEEElllllllliiiissssoooonnnn
(4PM) After the panel, Ellison autographed books for an hour, so I got
his autograph in _A_n _E_d_g_e _i_n _M_y _V_o_i_c_e and _C_o_o_k_i_n_g _O_u_t _o_f _T_h_i_s _W_o_r_l_d. He
seemed quite polite and sociable while autographing--not at all the
monster he is painted (often by himself, I might add) to be.
3.7 FFFFiiiillllmmmm PPPPrrrreeeevvvviiiieeeewwwwssss ffffrrrroooommmm EEEEmmmmppppiiiirrrreeee FFFFiiiillllmmmm
(4PM) Since I got done at the autographing session early, I went looking
for the Warner Brothers presentation. I ended up in the Empire Films
presentation instead. They are the folks who gave you _T_r_o_l_l, _G_h_o_u_l_i_e_s,
and of course, the wonderful _R_e-_A_n_i_m_a_t_o_r. They are working on several
more projects, including another Lovecraft film, _F_r_o_m _B_e_y_o_n_d. It has
much the same cast as _R_e-_A_n_i_m_a_t_o_r and about the same level of grossness.
It also seems to have the same indefinable charm as _R_e-_A_n_i_m_a_t_o_r, so I'll
be watching for it. I won a _T_r_o_l_l poster at this presentation (of
course there were only about two dozen people there...).
3.8 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: TTTTuuuurrrrnnnniiiinnnngggg aaaa BBBBooooooookkkk iiiinnnnttttoooo FFFFiiiillllmmmm
(Members: Craig Miller, Alan Dean Foster, 5PM) Most of the scheduled
participants had canceled out of this one. Alan Dean Foster has never
had a novel of his turned into a film; he does the other direction
(novelizations). He _f_i_n_a_l_l_y admitted that he wrote the novelization to
_S_t_a_r _W_a_r_s, nine years after Mark first claimed that to be the case. It
had been in his contract to deny it, but when Pollack's biography of
Lucas came out and announced it, Lucas's lawyers gave Foster a release
from that restriction. So Mark scooped them all, and in _L_a_n'_s _L_a_n_t_e_r_n!
Anyway, the panel of two talked about good books made into bad films and
bad books made into good films and why some good books _c_a_n'_t be made
into good films, etc. Most of this was a rehash of many other such
discussions which usually end up centered on "What happened to _D_u_n_e?"
There were no new, amazing insights that I can remember.
3.9 SSSSoooouuuutttthhhheeeerrrrnnnn IIIInnnnhhhhoooossssppppiiiittttaaaalllliiiittttyyyy ffffoooorrrr DDDDiiiinnnnnnnneeeerrrr
We went to Dunk 'n Dine. Big mistake. Apparently no one told them that
there would be several hundred people looking for dinner, all at 6PM.
The service was slow (only one cook) and surly. The waitress claimed
she was quitting after the day was finished.
3.10 HHHHuuuuggggoooo AAAAwwwwaaaarrrrddddssss
Though we stood in line for almost an hour we still had terrible seats.
The entire front third of the ballroom was reserved for VIPs. We ended
up sitting in back of Saul (small world!). It was impossible to see the
stage, at least for me, and I had to be satisfied with watching the
entire proceedings on the giant screens (which I couldn't see the
bottom part of either). Bob Shaw interspersed his autobiography between
- 7 -
Hugos and once you got accustomed to his accent he was very funny. His
tales of doing engineering drawing and the problems involved reminded me
of the book _T_o _E_n_g_i_n_e_e_r _I_s _H_u_m_a_n by Henry Petroski which I had just
finished reading, especially his story of how it took the upper
management months to realize what he did as soon as he looked at his
first airplane drawing: the emergency exits were one above the other and
people jumping out of the top one would land on people jumping out of
the bottom one.
The Hugos themselves were given out in reverse order, just like the
Academy Awards, with the non-Hugo awards being given first of all. The
John W. Campbell Award went to Melissa Scott (who wrote _A _C_h_o_i_c_e _o_f
_D_e_s_t_i_n_i_e_s, a not-bad alternate history novel published by Baen Books).
The First Fandom Award was given to Julian Schwartz and Rusty Hevelin
got the Big Heart Award. Mike Glyer got Best Fan Writer. Then the
biggee of the evening (for us, anyway): _L_a_n'_s _L_a_n_t_e_r_n, edited by George
Laskowski, won for Best Fanzine! George, in his thank-you speech, said
he would not thank all contributors by name (darn!). He also asked,
"This is a Hugo? I thought I was getting a car!" (The Yugo, for those
who don't know.)
The rest was almost anti-climactic. joan hanke-woods [sic] won Best Fan
Artist. _L_o_c_u_s, edited by Charlie Brown, won Best Prozine (again!).
Michael Whelan won for the fifth time in a row as Best Pro Artist and
withdrew himself from consideration in next year's voting. (Are you
listening, Charlie?)
The big shock of the evening was when Judy Lynn Del Rey won postumously
for Best Editor and Lester Del Rey sent a letter refusing the award
because he felt it was given because she had died. As he said, she had
had many chances to be given it while she was alive, yet had always been
passed over. While there is truth in what he says, I feel that the
problem is that there are more people that deserve Hugos than can get
them and the result is, sadly, that many don't get them until it's too
late.
Although _B_r_a_z_i_l got the most applause, _B_a_c_k _t_o _t_h_e _F_u_t_u_r_e won for Best
Dramatic Presentation. Apparently _B_r_a_z_i_l got the most first-place
votes, but almost everyone who didn't vote it first voted it last.
Tom Weller's _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _M_a_d_e _S_t_u_p_i_d won for Best Non-Fiction (a catchall
category that causes cartoon books like this to compete with a
collection of Ellison essays like _A_n _E_d_g_e _i_n _M_y _V_o_i_c_e). "Fermi and
Frost" by Frederik Pohl won for Best Short Story; "Paladin of the Lost
Hour" by Harlan Ellison won for Best Novelette; "Twenty Four Views of
Mt. Fuji by Hokusai" by Roger Zelazny won for Best Novella. Best Novel
was _E_n_d_e_r'_s _G_a_m_e by Orson Scott Card.
- 8 -
3.11 OOOOtttthhhheeeerrrr AAAAwwwwaaaarrrrddddssss
Several other awards were given out at other times, but this seems like
a good place to list them. These included the Prometheus Awards:
Victor Milan's _C_y_b_e_r_n_e_t_i_c _S_a_m_u_r_a_i for Best Contemporary Work, and C. M.
Kornbluth's _T_h_e _S_y_n_d_i_c and Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's
"Illuminatus Trilogy." Frederik Pohl got the Beany Award. The
"Japanese Hugos" (Seiun Awards) were given to the "Elric" books by
Michael Moorcock (Best Foreign Novel) and _B_a_c_k _t_o _t_h_e _F_u_t_u_r_e (Best Media
Presentation. Best Foreign Short Story was given to the perennial "No
Award."
The 1988 Worldcon Bid was won by New Orleans; Boston won the 1989
Worldcon Bid. Attending memberships in Nolacon II (New Orleans) are $35
until 9/30/86; supporting memberships are $30. Their address is Nolacon
II: 46th World Science Fiction Convention, P. O. Box 8010, New Orleans
LA 70182.
My other thrill of the evening came when I rode the elevator with Jack
Williamson. He looked at my name tag, then kissed my hand and thanked
me for the good review of his book _W_o_n_d_e_r'_s _C_h_i_l_d!
3.12 HHHHaaaannnnggggiiiinnnngggg oooouuuutttt
Since there were no really good parties scheduled we hung out with Kate,
Dave, and Pete and talked about old times.
4. SSSSuuuunnnnddddaaaayyyy
4.1 BBBBrrrreeeeaaaakkkkffffaaaasssstttt
After the dismal service at the Dun 'n Dine last night, we decided to go
elsewhere. The hotel's brunch didn't start until 10:30 however, and we
wanted to eat before that so we ate in the coffee shop. Nothing
special, but at least it wasn't over-priced.
4.2 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: HHHHoooowwww ttttoooo SSSSuuuurrrrvvvviiiivvvveeee iiiinnnn aaaa TTTTwwwwoooo----FFFFaaaannnn FFFFaaaammmmiiiillllyyyy
(Members: Bernadette Bosky, George Laskowski, Maia Cowan, Arthur
Hlavaty, Bruce Pelz, Elaine Pelz; 11AM) Three sets of two-fan families
concluded (after an hour) that the panel should have been "How to
Survive in a One-Fan Family," since two fans will at least understand
how fandom works. The only problems seem to be the usual problems: he
doesn't like some of her friends, she doesn't like some of his, everyone
thinks of them as one entity (I can sympathize with that!), etc.
- 9 -
4.3 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: CCCChhhhiiiinnnneeeesssseeee MMMMyyyytttthhhhoooollllooooggggyyyy iiiinnnn SSSSFFFF&&&&FFFF
(Members: Susan Shwartz, Ed Byers, Brenda W. Clough, Christopher
Stasheff; 1PM) This was a confused panel. Mike Whelan's slide show ran
late so this started late, except they panel decided to start it early
off in a corridor somewhere. So those of us who were waiting in the
room missed the first fifteen minutes. Susan Shwartz then plugged her
up-coming books for a while (as did others also) and everyone admitted a
non-too-thorough knowledge of the subject. By 1:30 nothing interesting
or new had been said so I left and went to...
4.4 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: TTTThhhheeee PPPPrrrreeeeqqqquuuueeeellll ttttoooo MMMMyyyy SSSSeeeeqqqquuuueeeellll:::: SSSSeeeerrrriiiieeeessss WWWWrrrriiiittttiiiinnnngggg
(Members: Michael Kube-McDowell, Glen Cook, Alan Dean Foster, Lawrence
Watt-Evans; 1PM) Since I missed the first half of this, my comments will
be brief. It's difficult to keep inconsistencies from creeping in to
series, and most authors don't like them because of this, and also
because they're often sick of the characters and world and want to do
something new. But the publishers offer them larger and larger sums of
money to do sequels to popular novels, so they do them. Foster said
that the "Spellsinger" books were not supposed to be a series; they were
written as one book, but Warner told him they were splitting it right
down the middle, so anyone who didn't like the "surprise" they got when
they discovered that the book they had bought was only half a book
should complain to them.
4.5 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: TTTTiiiimmmmeeee TTTTrrrraaaavvvveeeellll:::: TTTThhhheeee GGGGeeeennnnrrrreeee''''ssss MMMMoooosssstttt DDDDeeeelllliiiicccciiiioooouuuussss CCCChhhheeeeaaaatttt
(Members: Robert Silverberg, Gregory Benford, Joe Haldeman, Larry Niven;
2PM) Definitely the heavy-guns panel of the Con. Silverberg and Niven
did most of the talking. They started by concluding that time travel
was fantasy, not science fiction (at least so far as science is known
today). Backwards time travel, they said, is impossible. Forwards time
travel (as greater than 1 second per second) they dismissed without
really discussing, probably because most people _m_e_a_n backwards time
travel when they talk about time travel. After they were asked to give
their favorite solution to the "Grandfather Paradox" someone in the
audience got up and said (in all seriousness), "But if you go back in
time and kill your grandfather then you'd never be born." This person
was definitely a neo! (Since that _i_s the Grandfather Paradox.) Anyway,
it was a fun panel with a lot of nifty ideas batted around.
4.6 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: CCCCrrrraaaaiiiigggg MMMMiiiilllllllleeeerrrr SSSShhhhoooowwww ((((_N_i_g_h_t_f_l_y_e_r_s)
(Members: Craig Miller, Robert Jaffe, George R. R. Martin; 4PM) Robert
Jaffe is the producer (I think) of the the movie being made from
Martin's "Nightflyers." It's a relatively low-budget production with a
lot of the look of _A_l_i_e_n around it. There is a fair amount of gore.
Maybe it will be good, but don't expect anything amazing. Mark and I
both noted that Criag Miller and George Martin look a lot alike.
- 10 -
4.7 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: MMMMaaaalllleeee PPPPoooowwwweeeerrrr////FFFFeeeemmmmaaaalllleeee RRRReeeevvvveeeennnnggggeeee:::: FFFFiiiiccccttttiiiioooonnnn &&&& RRRReeeeaaaalllliiiittttyyyy
(Members: Dawn Atkins, Brenda W. Clough, Asa Drake, J. Neil Shulman,
Paul O. Williams; 5PM) I stuck with this for about twenty minutes,
hoping that it would get interesting. It didn't (I can't even remember
what they were saying now), so I went to the...
4.8 SSSSeeeeccccuuuullllaaaarrrr HHHHuuuummmmaaaannnniiiisssstttt RRRReeeevvvviiiivvvvaaaallll MMMMeeeeeeeettttiiiinnnngggg
(Led by Orson Scott Card: 5PM) This was fantastic! I could have kicked
myself for missing the beginning of this for the boring panel instead.
Card (a Mormon) led an old-fashioned revival-style meeting, not for
fundamentalism, but for secular humanism. He packed the ballroom, even
to people standing in the back, and kept us there for over an hour and a
half, telling us the evils of the Meese Commission and other right-wing
groups that want to limit our freedom of expression.
I can't possibly remember everything he said, but some things stick in
my mind. Like "more people die in a week because of alcohol and tobacco
than have died in the whole history of mankind from an overdose of
beaver shots." And if prayers were returned to public schools and based
on prevailing community standards, children in the South would be saying
Baptist prayers, children in the Southwest would be saying Catholic
prayers, and children in New York would be saying so many different
prayers that they wouldn't have any time left for learning anything.
And how on the one hand the fundamentalists claim "secular humanism" is
a religion and should be taken out of schools and on the other hand want
to put prayer back in. (I may be one of the few people I know old
enough to remember prayer in public schools--it was in Bangor. Maine, in
the 1950's and was the "Lord's Prayer"--Christian, of course.) Card
also called for "Amens" and "Hallelujahs" as befits a revivalist and had
us sing a secular humanist hymn which went something like "Rock of Ages,
by the sea, worn away by entropy."
He talked about how the Meese Commission coerced the Southland
Corporation ("7-11") to stop carrying _P_l_a_y_b_o_y et al. ("You should go in
and tell them if they won't sell you _P_l_a_y_b_o_y they can keep their damn
beer!") He contrasted this with the reaction of his publisher to a
group that, shortly after Card spoke out against censorship, demanded
they stop publishing him because he wrote "pornography." The publisher
told the group to point out exactly what they thought was pornographic
and that _t_h_e_n they would talk to them. End of story.
People were also asked to "testify"--to write their names and favorite
natural laws on pieces of paper that were handed out. Card then read a
selection of these, with commentary. Some he had problems with, since
they were abstruse mathematical or scientific concepts that he didn't
understand. A sample of his commentary: "Joe Smith likes the Heisenberg
Uncertainty Principle...at least that's what I think it says." This was
contrasted with two words that Card claimed would sound impossible
together--like "bicycle sex" or "vegetable athletics." Actually, he
- 11 -
said, the latter two he could understand but not
Throughout the talk, he kept yelling, "Am I talking loud enough?" to
which the audience would yell back, "Yes!" At the end he did this, and
then responded to the "Yes!" with "No, I'm not!" He went on to point
out that until these views were heard in the legislatures, and the
courts, and everywhere, neither he nor anyone else was talking loud
enough. And if all we did was to go home and say what a great show it
was, then we deserved what we would get from the would-be censors et al.
And he was right.
Card apparently did this as the NASFIC in Houston also. If he does it
again and you have a chance to go, do so. I wonder, though, what the
hotel made of all this; just three months ago they hosted the Southern
Baptist convention and this must have been a hell of a contrast.
4.9 DDDDiiiinnnnnnnneeeerrrr aaaatttt FFFFiiiisssshhhheeeerrrrmmmmaaaannnn''''ssss CCCCoooovvvveeee............AAAAggggaaaaiiiinnnn
By the time the Secular Humanist revival Meeting got out at 6:40,
everyone I was supposed to meet for dinner had already gone to
Fisherman's Cove. I did find Paul, however, and so went to Fisherman's
Cove with him and Sherry, Michael, and Jason. We ended up sitting near
the rest of the gang, but at our own table (the starting times were too
out of sync to join them). I had the surf 'n turf. Unfortunately, by
the time I got to the dessert bar, a lot of the best things (lie the
pecan pie) were gone, but I managed to find enough anyway.
4.10 MMMMaaaassssqqqquuuueeeerrrraaaaddddeeee
On the basis of the Hugo Awards fiasco, everyone decided to watch the
Masquerade via closed-circuit television. I missed the beginning
because I ate dinner late, but saw most of the fifty or so costumes
(down from 100 a couple of years ago). They still had the same not-
very-funny guy in a vampire costume announcing it, and the costumes were
not very original. There were several standard "expert" costumes, which
seem to consist of an ornately decorated circle of material which is on
ribs (like an umbrella) with a slit from perimeter to center to allow it
to be folded up and worn on the back. When the wearer gets out on
stage, s/he merely takes a rib in each hand and raises them above
his/her head, causing the circle to open. Ho-hum. The funniest costume
was the one of fake super-heroes (I can't remember the excat name),
which had Miracle Whip and her son Cool Whip, California Cooler, Sheer
Energy, and Stay Free (I tell you, when the Masquerade is reduced to
people dressing up as sanitary napkins, there's something amiss here!).
The first run-through finished at just about 10 PM at which point we
proceeded to the...
- 12 -
4.11 UUUUsssseeeennnneeeetttt PPPPaaaarrrrttttyyyy
Great--I got to meet all sorts of people I knew only electronically:
ihnp4!mtgzy!ecl (that's me--I've met me before), ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper
(that's Mark--I've met him before too), mjs@ibm.com (Nicolas Simicich,
who hosted this party), oc.trei@cu20b (Peter Trei, who kept the mailing
list for this), jaffe@rutgers (Saul Jaffe, editor of SF-Lovers' Digest),
boyajian@akov68.dec.com (_t_h_e Jerry Boyajian, a.k.a. Jayembee), ron@brl
(Ron Natalie, who typed in the Usenet Party Report), hobbit@rutgers (who
got a flash right in the face while typing), sommers@rutgers (Liz from
the Boston in '89 party), ihnp4!ides!kimi (the Usenetter from the Meet-
the-Participants Party), ihnp4!mcnc!duke!crm (Charlie Martin, who claims
I look like Snow White--what does that make Mark, I wonder?),
ooblick@unirot (Mikki Barry), random@unirot (Mikki's husband?),
chrisa@tekig5 (Chris Andersen, who wrote the new "Netiquette" document
and is now off the Net), lll-crg!figmo (Lynn Gold, who got there late
and didn't sign the e-mail roster), ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!wombat,
marick@gswd-vms (Brian Marick, Wombat Consort; I exchanged Illinois
stories with them, telling them how Champaign-Urbana was the big city to
those of us who lived in Rantoul), jsloan@wright (John Sloan),
ihnp4!sx1100!jlr (it was his first con), math.linda@ucla-locus.arpa,
coleman@ucsd.edu, pratt@prosche.stanford.edu, ihnp4!umn-cs!hyper!dean,
chapman.es@xerox.com, ks@a.cs.okstate.edu, ks@svo.uucp, jkr@gitpyr,
haas@mich-state.edu.csnet, moore@eglin-vax.arpa, mooremj@eglin-vax.arpa,
gallaway@b.isi.edu, mgrant@mimsy.umd.edu, jim@mimsy.umd.edu,
zeve@rutgers, lcc.barry@ucla-cs, ucla-cs!lcc!leeway, meister@borax,
ihnp4!gargoyle!randy, Breslau@MIT-OZ, and ihnp4!cbmvax!snark!eric. We
also turned away two whips-and-chains freaks who were directed to our
party by a practical joker. There was also the inevitable Rich Rosen
clone.
I announced I was tired of being half of "The Leepers". I'm not looking
for a divorce--I just want to be recognized as my own person. Even when
I was not with Mark, people would come up to me, read my badge, and say,
"So you're the Leepers!" On the way down in the elevator, Mark tried to
convince me that more people knew me than knew him. Someone leaned
over, read my badge, read his badge, and then said to him, "Mark Leeper!
I've read your movie reviews on the Net!" The prosecution rests.
4.12 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: WWWWhhhhaaaatttt WWWWiiiillllllll TTTTeeeecccchhhhnnnnoooollllooooggggyyyy DDDDoooo ttttoooo SSSSeeeexxxx????
(Members: Steven Gould, Gardner Dozois, David Govaker, Tess Kissinger,
Lawrence Watt-Evans; 11PM) I didn't attend this but one of the
Usenetters went to it and returned with a report. Apparently it was
quite hysterical, with panel members bringing various "appliances" and
catalogs. It's amazing how high-tech dildos have become. There was
also some non-appliance toys, like the "wind-up walking 2-inch penis."
- 13 -
4.13 BBBBoooossssttttoooonnnn iiiinnnn ''''88889999 PPPPaaaarrrrttttyyyy
After the Usenet Party we hit the Boston in '89 celebration party, where
we ran into Mikki Barry and her husband again (I think his name was Ken,
but I'm terrible with names). Dale also wandered in and we talked about
the Net, especially net.women and the still embryonic rec.sport.martial.
Dale was especially thrilled to learn that people were throwing other
people onto the concrete garage floor at _h_i_s house at the
net.singles.eastcoast party! (That's sarcasm--he actually was turning
somewhat green as thoughts of lawsuits raced through his head.) After a
while the conversation drifted completely to martial arts and we drifted
out.
5. MMMMoooonnnnddddaaaayyyy
5.1 BBBBrrrreeeeaaaakkkkffffaaaasssstttt
We had a quick breakfast in the brunch area with Paul and Sherry then
back to the room to pack. This was inhibited by the fact that Dale had
come in at 8 AM and was sleeping. So we packed quietly and went out. I
went to...
5.2 FFFFuuuuttttuuuurrrreeee WWWWoooorrrrllllddddccccoooonnnn PPPPrrrreeeesssseeeennnnttttaaaattttiiiioooonnnnssss
Members: Seacon II, Noreascon III, and Nolacon II; Noon) Brighton's
facilities look quite good, and I'm looking forward to it. Boston was
quite honest about the fact that the Hynes Convention Center was
completely torn down. It's supposed to be done in plenty of time for
the Con, but if it isn't they _h_a_v_e made other arrangements with a nearby
theater and a music school to use their facilities. New Orleans seemed
the most disorganized. For one thing, they had already sent their slide
show back that morning. Every question about facilities was met with
the response that the facilities were great. I'm reserving judgement.
At the end it was back to the room to check out. We checked out at 1PM
and schlepped our bags to...
5.3 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: TTTThhhheeee CCCCoooorrrrmmmmaaaannnn SSSSyyyynnnnddddrrrroooommmmeeee--------LLLLiiiittttttttlllleeee FFFFiiiillllmmmmssss aaaannnndddd BBBBeeeehhhheeeemmmmooootttthhhhssss
(Members: Edward Bryant, Craig Miller, Frederik Pohl, Ron Wolfe; 2PM)
How many panels does Ed Mryant do in one convention?! Anyway, the
topics was supposedly "are little films overtaking major releases?" The
answer was, predictably enough, no, so the panel went on to talk about
what low-budget studios were doing. Ron Wolfe talked a lot about the
Tulsa film industry. Yes, Tulsa Oklahoma has a film industry, or rather
a video industry, having two studios doing direct-to-video features.
One of them that I have seen is _T_h_e _R_i_p_p_e_r with Tom Savini; another that
I have not seen is _B_l_o_o_d _C_u_l_t. They're not very good, but they are
cheap. (Or as they say: "Cheap, fast, good--choose two out of three.")
Roger Corman has apparently fallen on hard times, his latest few
projects being considerably less than successful. Miller talked a
- 14 -
little bit about the filming of _H_o_l_l_y_w_o_o_d _B_o_u_l_e_v_a_r_d during Corman's New
World Pictures era (1976). The two people who made it went to Corman
with the idea and he said he'd give them $800,000 to do it. At the last
minute he told them they could have only $400,000. He never expected
them to produce anything worthwhile, but he figured it was worth the
money to prove his point if he was right, and to get a film if he was
wrong and they could produce one. _H_o_l_l_y_w_o_o_d _B_o_u_l_e_v_a_r_d was a very funny
film about low-budget filmmaking; see it if you get a chance.
6. TTTThhhheeee RRRReeeettttuuuurrrrnnnn
Going back to the airport we were ready to board the bus and saying
good-bye to Kate and Dave when the doorman came along with Jack
Williamson asking for two people to share a cab with him to the airport
for the same price as the bus. So I immediately pushed Kate and Dave
forward and said, "You guys want to, right?" So they got to ride with
Jack Williamson. We got to ride with James Morrow and Marvin Kaye.
Kaye was talking about all sorts of new Holmes stories that will be
coming out next year for the Holmes centennial. I can't wait!
At the airport we talked to a couple from Texas. He works at the
Johnson Space Center; she's a marine biologist. We talked about Brin's
books with dolphins, as well as _C_a_c_h_a_l_o_t, and the "Dolphin Boy" series.
We saw Lan walk by, but he was too far away for me to run over and point
to him and announce "This man just won a Hugo" (which I had been doing
whenever I saw him). Oh well, maybe next year in Brighton...
_N_O_T_E_S _F_R_O_M _T_H_E _N_E_T
---------------------------------------
Subject: STRANGERS, by Dean R. Koontz
Path: mtuxo!mtune!akguc!akgua!gatech!lll-lcc!lll-crg!caip!daemon
Date: Mon, 25-Aug-86 14:10:22 EST
STRANGERS, Dean R. Koontz, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1986, $17.95,
ISBN 0-399-13143-4, 526 pages.
I thought it might be worth mentioning this book to the list; I just ran
across it on the "new book" shelf at the St. Louis Public Library and
read it this weekend. It was not classified by them as SF, but as
regular fiction; however, I always thought of Koontz as an SF author,
and I would define this book as SF. To give details as to why would be a
spoiler, though, so you'll have to trust me...
It is much like the usual Stephen-King-type of supernatural thriller,
and in fact there is a back-cover blurb from King. (Also one from John
D. MacDonald, and one from "Mary Higgins Clark" -- who is she? I do not
recognize the name.)
It does have a fairly gripping quality to it, and I enjoyed it more than
I expected to. The ending seemed rather weak, though, and not up to the
quality of the rest of the book.
A non-spoiling mini-summary: A number of people, in different locations
across the US, unknown to each other, begin having unusual psychological
episodes, phobias, and obsessions. The book follows a half-dozen of them
in detail, over a period of days, tracing the development of these
effects, and bringing out the threads of commonality which bind these
strangers to one another. They eventually join one another and discover
the cause and their true relationship.
Speaking of Koontz, the "Also by" page (is there a better or "official"
name for this page in a book [the one before the title page where they
list other books by the same author]?) lists the following titles:
DARKFALL, PHANTOMS, WHISPERS, THE VISION, and NIGHT CHILLS. None of
these ring a bell with me, and none sound like SF -- has Koontz moved
away from SF to "horror/thrillers" instead? Anyone have anything to say
about these other books, or other things by Koontz?
Regards, Will
---------------------------------------
Subject: New books by G. Wolfe, H. Waldrop and K. S. Robinson
Path: ulysses!burl!clyde!caip!lll-crg!seismo!ut-sally!husc6!h-sc4!gouvea
Date: Fri, 29-Aug-86 11:25:41 EST
- 2 -
Three very good new books that either have just come out or should be
available soon:
1. Gene Wolfe, *Soldier of the Mist* --- Begins a new series, this one
set in pre-classical Greece. Like everything Wolfe writes, not to be
missed. It concerns a mercenary in the Persian army during the invasion
of Greece who is wounded and loses his long-term memory: he can
remember only the last 8 or so hours, and has to begin from scratch
every morning. On the other hand, he finds he can now see and talk to
the gods. Don't miss it. (TOR hardcover)
2. Kim Stanley Robinson, *The Planet on the Table* --- If you don't
usually read short stories, make an exception for this: the man is a
very good writer. He can create a mood and his characters come alive.
(TOR hardcover)
3. Howard Waldrop, *Howard Who?* --- This is also short stories, by one
of the most original and outrageous writers around. Waldrop has written
only one novel, *Them Bones* (Ace Specials) (and one in collaboration,
*The Texas-Israeli War*), but his short stories are better: wacky and
wonderful, always different. Give this a try. (Doubleday hardcover)
Fernando Gouvea
---------------------------------------
Subject: Japanese culture as reflected in anime and manga
Path: hplabs!tektronix!orca!tekecs!hutch@volkstation.gwd.tek.com
Date: Thu, 4-Sep-86 19:09:57 EST
In article <557@nike.UUCP> kaufman@orion.UUCP (Bill Kaufman) writes:
In article <165@wright.EDU> jsloan@wright.EDU (John Sloan) writes:
The "good guys" in Macross seem very western, while the "bad
guys" seem (at least in the American translation) to embody
much of the culture of feudal Japan. Do you think Macross is
an allegory for the infusion, and eventual dominance, of
western cultural myths over the native Japanese myths?
This isn't only true of Macross, but of EVERY Japanese animated
I've seen.
OH COME ON! PLEASE! LEAVE US NOT GET STUPID HERE, FOLKS!
There has ALWAYS been a tension in Japanese culture between what we
could call the Warrior Myth, with its foundations in simplification of
Bushido and the Samurai feudal culture, and the "softer" emotions which
are by tradition not expressed openly.
The story in Macross, even after the Harmony Gold people disrupt the
harmony of the story for the sake of the gold they can get out of it, is
still a story about how a culture can become decadent and not know it.
By becoming exclusively warriors, the Zentraedi have thrown away those
- 3 -
things which made their culture worthwhile, even viable. THAT is the
fundamental point of the story. Any allegory between Feudal Japan is
very weak. You might make a stronger connection between the
militaristic ruling clique which held power during WWII and which did
not really represent the desires of the people of Japan, and the
Zentraedi leaders. However, in the Macross story the Zentraedi warriors
engage in what could be called a mass revolt, when exposed to those
elements of a larger culture which they lack. This is maybe an
idealized dream, and if you want to put some sort of racial-guilt
allegory in here, it would be that the animators, as representatives of
the "enlightened" society, feel that their WWII leaders might have
changed their ways if they had really understood other societies. But
that is also a fairly weak allegory.
The "good guys" aren't all Western: I seem to remember an uncle
(father?) of Minmei's that was Japanese, and the doctor on Cpt.
Harlock's ship is, also. (BTW, see how they portray Japanese?
Short, fat, balding, eyes set to either side of their _nostrils_,
pug noses, etc.? What kind of self- image do these people have?)
Don't jump to conclusions. Study first. Then jump to conclusions.
There are basically two races in Japan. I will ignore the Ainu here
because I don't clearly recall how they fit in to this. However, the
Samurai were taller, fairer-skinned, and spoke a rather different
language than the peasants. The peasants tended to be short, fat, with
squashed features. Rather similar in some respects to the Okinawan
peoples. Anyway, the ancient tradition in Japanese arts has short, fat,
exaggerated features being part of a "humorous, earthy" character.
While it is permissible to give such a character noble traits, the main
purpose of such characters is to serve as comic relief. Similarly, the
noble-featured, large-eyed, light-skinned tall slender figure represents
the Samurai type. While it is permissible and even common to have fatal
character flaws in this type, the hero is always one of this type. Even
in some of the more free-form comic-strip type manga, some characters
will change appearance somewhat based on their role, being drawn taller
and thinner and more noble when they engage in a pure and selfless act.
And please don't go on about John Wayne movies until you've seen a few
Kurosawa films, and maybe a Zatoichi or two, then you'll lose the
ethnocentric idea that the romantic, handsome, stalwart hero is an
American invention.
Hutch
---------------------------------------
Subject: Manhunter (review, no spoilers)
Path: mtuxo!houxm!ihnp4!fortune!stirling
Date: Mon, 25-Aug-86 20:01:54 EST
I saw Manhunter the other day, and to get rght to the point, I'd give it
- 4 -
a flat 0 on the +/- 4 scale. It was made by the same guy that does
Miami Vice, and it shows. The music is intrusive (way over the top in
places), and the costumes ... well if you've seen Miami Vice you know
what I mean. The interiors are also over the top. It suffers from the
common fault of the main character (the sleuth) ALWAYS making the right
guess, and from what I've heard of the book (Red Dragon) it's based on
it misses several major points. Quick plot synopsis (no spoilers here!):
Evil villain kills whole families in 'bad ways' each full moon. Hero
(ex-FBI) is persuaded to help catch him. Hero previously caught a
similar psycho-murderer, and spent time in a psychiatric hospital as a
result, so is very reluctant, but (of course!) agrees. Hero's MO is to
get into the villain's mindset, and thus predict his next murder, and
apprehend him (no prizes for guessing the outcome of this film!). Here
we have the makings of an excellent story, showing the interplay of the
good and bad sides in all of us. The film does make some attempts at
this, especially with the villain (who was very good - quite creepy!),
but gets caught up in superficial style to the detriment of content. I
was frustrated, because it almost was, and could easily have been, a
really good psychological thriller, with the hero delving into his own
dark side in his quest for the villain's motivation, and suffering
severe internal conflicts as a result; and on the other hand showing a
good side to the villain. Well, we never find out the villain's
motivation, or how he kills people (although it's made clear that his
method of murder is very specific and important), and we never really
get to see into our Hero's mind. However there are a few good scenes -
one with the Hero and his son in a supermarket (no spoilers!), one where
the villain meets a 'nice girl' and is (relatively) normal for a while,
and one where our Hero goes to a jail to talk to the last psycho-
murderer he caught. To sum up, I think the maker should have stuck to
TV and let someone else make this film. BTW & FYI (etc), MO = Modus
Operandi = method of operation.
patrick
---------------------------------------
Subject: notes on Stand By Me
Path: ism780c!ism780!steven
Date: Thu, 21-Aug-86 13:57:00 EST
What's it about? Four kids hike into the woods to see a dead body.
What's it really about? A journey of discovery. Remembrance of things
past. Late summer, late 1950's. Worrying about growing up and being
like your no-good older brothers or no-account father. Sticking
together till death do us part; at least, that's what you think when
you're 12 years old (pre-girls) and making a pact with your best buddy.
Rob Reiner is now three for three as a director, having given us "This
is Spinal Tap", "The Sure Thing" and now "Stand By Me." In none of
these films does he consciously swing for the fences; each one is more
- 5 -
of a finely honed little gem of an idea, crafted into an excellent movie
of its kind. Reiner concentrates this time, aided by an excellent
screenplay adaptation by Evans and Gideon (who wrote "Starman"), on
evoking the struggle between childhood innocence and an often cruel
adult world. It's a very affecting character study; even if the
exterior framework for the tale is thin, the interior framework is
sturdy and complex.
Fine performances by an ensemble cast of young actors. John Cusack from
"The Sure Thing" makes an appearance as older brother to Gordie (Wil
Wheaton).
Three stars out of four.
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